The prime ministers of the three Baltic states agreed on Friday on additional two weeks for the final agreement on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market, adviser to Lithuania's Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis said.

Lithuania's Parliamentary Speaker Viktoras Pranckietis met with his Latvian counterpart on the eve of Baltic prime ministers, expressing hope that the neighboring state would support the agreement on liquefied natural gas, which would pave way for applying for European Union (EU) support for gas infrastructure projects of all three states.

Lithuania's Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis hopes to reach full stop in the Friday's negotiations among the Baltic prime ministers in an effort to ensure European support to the Klaipėda liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal. In his words, if the discussions end in failure, Lithuania will seek to end the discussions and move on.

Lithuania's Parliamentary Speaker Viktoras Pranckietis is meeting with his Latvian counterpart, Inara Murniece, in the Latvian seaside resort of Jūrmala on Thursday to discuss the positions on the Astravyets nuclear power plant (NPP) under construction in Belarus.

The Baltic Film Days will be held in Vilnius for the first time at the end of August – it is a unique event featuring Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian productions on the same week in Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius, the Lithuanian Film Center said.

After Latvia's foreign minister restated the country's plans not to block electricity generated by the Astravyets nuclear power plant (NPP), Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius does not rule out the move is due to economic reasons.

Today, the Baltic Focus events dedicated to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are launching within the programme of the industry days of the International Odessa Film Festival, the Lithuanian Film Centre wrote in a press release.

Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius says he was assured by his Swedish colleague that the Swedish MP's initiative to block criticism for Belarus at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) did not reflect the entire country's position.

Estonia and Lithuania have so far failed to agree on how the Baltic power grids are to be synchronized with the Western European system and a memorandum of understanding will not be signed during the EU summit on Thursday, as planned, Lithuanian Energy Minister Žygimantas Vaičiūnas said, adding that this might be done later this year.

The Baltic prime ministers say that their countries are ready for Zapad, a major military exercise to be held jointly by Russia and Belarus in September, and feel safe after NATO partners have deployed additional capabilities in the region.

Two terminals could operate on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea controlled by the three Baltic states – in Lithuania's Klaipėda and in Estonia, which could build a small terminal, Lithuania's Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis stated on Friday. In his words, the two terminals would supplement each other along with the Inčukalns gas storage facility in Latvia.

The prime ministers of the three Baltic states are visiting the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the Lithuanian port city of Klaipėda on Friday as part of the so-called LNG tour that was kicked off in Estonia to provide a platform for the prime ministers to discuss a regional LNG terminal and the possibility to secure European support.

The Baltic States are among the best locations in Central and Western Europe. According to the economic survey conducted in 2017 by the German-Baltic Chamber of Commerce (AHK), Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are outperforming the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, German-Baltic Chamber of Commerce announced in a press release.

Russian media outlets in Moscow and in the Baltic countries have stepped up their efforts to generate opposition among Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). These media sources have been putting out fake news stories suggesting that NATO was recruiting Russian speakers, especially in Latvia, to use “as guinea pigs” to test new “physical, biological and other techniques.” The goal of such “experimentation” is purportedly to prepare the Balts to help the Western alliance invade the Russian Federation.

The prime ministers of the three Baltic countries and Poland on Monday reached a preliminary agreement on synchronizing the power grids of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with the continental European network via the existing interconnection between Lithuania and Poland, known as LitPol Link, Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis said.

The prime ministers of the three Baltic countries and Poland reiterated on Monday that the planned second Nord Stream gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea is a political project and underlined their opposition to the project.

The prime ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are meeting in Tallinn on Monday to work on their disputes on strategic gas and energy projects. No specific decisions and agreements should be signed Monday, however, the conversations are crucial for Lithuania that aims to persuade the other countries on the need for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to secure European funding, as well as the possibility to synchronize power grids via Poland in a single link.

Swedish law-enforcement bodies take additional measures against car part thefts and cooperate with their colleagues in Lithuania, whose nationals commit a significant portion of these thefts, Swedish officials said on Thursday.

Lithuania and the other states of the Baltic Sea region should sign a memorandum of understanding in June on synchronization of the Baltic states with continental Europe via Poland. The document should give an impetus to the preparations for synchronized work of the networks.

Latvian Deputy Prime Minister and Economics Minister Arvils Aseradens is to meet with the Lithuanian energy and economy ministers to discuss the countries' key energy projects and efforts to restrict imports from the Astravyets nuclear power plant under construction in Belarus, and to visit the Klaipėda liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.

There is a consensus among member countries of the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan (BEMIP) that the Baltic power grids have to be synchronized with the Western European system via Poland, but details, such as the need for a second LitPol Link, remain to be worked out.